1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a shift register, a gate driving circuit including the shift register, a display panel including the shift register, and a method thereof. More particularly, the present invention relates to a shift register capable of reducing a gradual failure of a thin film transistor (“TFT”), a gate driving circuit including the shift register, a display panel including the shift register, and a method of minimizing transistor failure in the shift register.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, in order to reduce a manufacturing cost and to slim down a bezel of a display device, where a bezel is the border around a display area of a display device, a data driving integrated circuit (“IC”) or a gate driving IC is directly formed on the display panel. In order to form the gate driving IC on the display panel, simplifying a structure of the gate driving IC including an amorphous silicon a-Si thin film transistor (“TFT”) is required.
According to a conventional shift register having the a-Si TFT, a voltage of a specific node is maintained in a low level by applying relatively high positive voltage to a gate electrode of the a-Si TFT. When, the relatively high positive voltage between gate and source electrodes Vgs is applied to the gate electrode of the a-Si TFT for a long time, a threshold voltage Vth of the a-Si TFT is shifted to be about 1V to about 15V to induce a malfunction or misoperation.